Gustav

                Earlier in the summer we had another new arrival to the yard in 4 yr old Gustav.  He was purchased for The Plum Merchants to replace the retired Red Not Blue.  He was bought from Timmy Hyde in Ireland who is a pin hooker who mostly buys expensive flat bred foals and sells them as yearlings.  He would also buy a few 3 yr olds to run in point to points as four year olds and then sell on.  No horse stays with him for more than a year and it is key to his business that he sells on horses that do well for their new owners and plenty have.

                Gus ran in one maiden point to point in May where he finished 3^rd (beaten 9 lengths) and looking at the video I thought he might have won if he had jumped better, but then his price would have been considerably more considering what a good looking horse he is.  His mother ran in France and won as a 4 yr old and is a half sister to top class jumpers in France with black type winning and placed form.  He is by Mahler who is having a good start with his early jumps progeny and Gus is a very good looking horse with enormous ears!

                Gustav lost a fair bit of weight coming over from Ireland back in the summer so we gave him a minimum of a month being turned out before we got going with him as he is a big horse and is only 4 years old.  We then had a few minor niggles with him when getting going but he is now cantering and the plan will be to run him end of January/February time if all goes to plan.

                Every horse I’ve had for The Plum Merchants has won and The Plums have been great supporters of the yard over the years.  They have been in the winners’ enclosure at Cheltenham (but in 2^nd place) and the aim is to rise to the No 1 spot and of course at The Festival. 

                We have taken our time so far with Gustav to do what is right for the horse and then hopefully we will see him repay us with good results when he runs.  Patience, let the horse come to himself and then he (hopefully) will repay you!

Gustav

New horse - Kavanaghs Corner arrives to the yard

                We were delighted to go to The Brightwells sales at Cheltenham racecourse in November to secure the purchase of Kavanaghs Corner (stable name Casey).  Casey is a cracking 5 yr old by Coroner and has been purchased for Bridget O’Flynn and Norman Cahill.  Bridget and Norman are past owners with the yard and owned the lovely Outside The Box with us a few years ago.  It is great to welcome them back as owners.

                Kavanaghs Corner came 2^nd in his latest point to point in Ireland on 8^th November and was beaten only a neck by the winner, Stiletto.  Incidentally Stiletto was also at the sales and was the top lot of the day going for a whopping £130,000 so we think Kavanaghs Corner was relatively good value!  Casey was flying after the last and in another few strides he would have won the race as Stiletto was tiring.  Sometimes the winner of these point to points isn’t necessarily the best horse in the race and we obviously hope this is the case here.  Casey jumped like a buck and put his head down and battled which showed he tries very hard.  Talent is a waste if that person or animal doesn’t try.  His battling spirit is something that really caught our eye.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmRPZw2-hyc

                Norman & Bridget gave us a very simple order….a future 3 mile chaser who goes in the soft and can go on to win the Gold Cup followed by The Grand National – no pressure then!  What we do know is that he should be a future 3 mile chaser and that he definitely likes it soft as is was soft to heavy when he ran in Ireland.

                He is taking his time to settle into his new environment and has now finished his quarantine and is in the main yard.  He is the type of horse that once he has done something once or twice he then trusts the situation and starts to settle.  Physically he is one of the strongest horses I have ever sat on which is fantastic.  He is a powerhouse in everything he does; even walking around the walker he shows great power.  We are hoping that he will run January/February time. 

                I have been looking for quite a long time for the right horse and have visited Ireland twice and seen over 25 horses but nothing really grabbed my eye and the one that did had a price tag of £100,000!  I gave Norman & Bridget a list of 10 horses at the sales that I liked from looking at their point to point videos and form.  Out of those 10, they actually picked out Kavanaghs Corner beforehand.  We took our friends, Tor & Roly Rickcord to the sales and Tor is a good judge of a horse as she produces young ponies, breeds a bit and has also competed eventing and she took herself off to have a look at a few horses.  Lot 49 caught her eye from a distance and she went over and had a good look at him without knowing that he was on our shortlist.  She came back and begged me to go and look at lot 49 (he was the last on my list to look at) and we loved what we saw.  Buffy, our vet, was at the sales and vetted a few for us and it has to be one of the first times that she has said there was nothing wrong with Casey and that we would want to get him so there was quite a bit of fate surrounding his purchase!  To be honest we never thought we would get him as there were so many trainers and buyers pulling him out.  He hardly ever stood in his box! 

Kavanaghs Corner was sold at Brightwells by Aidan Fitzgerald from his Cobajay Stables in Carlow, Ireland.  There was an excellent article on Aidan in the Irish Point to Point Weekly about how he takes his time with his youngsters and that patience and a good feeding regime works well for him.  He has sold some excellent youngsters to top trainers (Bordini who won his bumper and is in training with Willie Mullins, Thomas Edison – winner of the Galway hurdle this year, Glencove Marina, Roberto Goldback, Vic Venturi, Last Instalment, Hidden Cyclone etc) and his approach to his horses is something that stands Casey in even better stead.  Hopefully Casey will be lucky for everyone and especially his owners Bridget & Norman.  It is a pleasure to have him in the yard.

An update on Get Back To Me after his run at Wincanton

We were very pleased with Get Back To Me’s run at Wincanton last week.  He ran in the 0-115 NH Nov handicap hurdle over a longer trip of 2m6f and came 5^th under a ride by Paddy Brennan.  He hasn’t had his ground so far this season and he wants good or genuine good to soft ground.  This was his first run in a handicap and over the longer trip.  He stayed on very nicely after relaxing out the back and showing us there is more to come. 

We had Buffy Shirley-Beavan, our vet, at the yard prior to his race and she had a look at his larynx and it was confirmed that he needs to have a wind op so considering this, he ran really well.  We would have to think that the operation will improve him significantly and he was booked in sharpish to Langford at the University of Bristol under the care of Geoff Lane and was operated on successfully on Tuesday and was picked up yesterday.  He will not now be running until the spring on better ground.  I really think he is a very decent horse that when he is able to run to his full potential will be winning races.  His full brother is the 4yr old Champagne Present currently in training with Jonjo O’Neill that was bought for 210,000gns!